Emalon the Storm Watcher is a raid boss in the Vault of Archavon. He can be found in the eastern wing. Although this boss was nerfed with a hotfix it still general requires (skilled players and/or) everyone in your raid to have over 2k dps.

Like Archavon, Emalon is only available to the faction that controls Wintergrasp Fortress. Also like Archavon, Emalon becomes un-attackable ten minutes before each fight for Wintergrasp starts. He does not become un-attackable if he is already engaged in combat.

25-man abilities

Emalon

Lightning Nova - 30,000 damage at point-blank range. Damage reduced with distance, but cannot be outranged in 25-man. Long cast time. Can be partially resisted.

Overcharge - Overcharge a random Tempest Minion (see below).

Tempest Minions

Four are present at the beginning of the fight; when one is killed, a new one spawns to replace it. Each add has ~520,000 health.

Overcharged - Increases damage by 20%. Also increases size. Stacks up to 10 times. One stack is applied roughly every 2 seconds. The Tempest Minion will explode immediately upon reaching 10 stacks, dealing ~30,000 nature damage to anyone inside the instance and likely wiping the raid. There will be a visible lightning-type animation and a large emote when Emalon empowers one of his minions with this effect. The first application of Overcharged fully heals the Tempest Minion.

10-man abilities

Emalon

~2.4 Million HP

Emalon uses only lightning abilities.

Chain Lightning - Strikes an enemy with a blast of lightning that inflicts 4625 to 5375 Nature damage. The damage increases by 50% each time it jumps. Each Chain Lightning comes every 15 seconds.

Lightning Nova - Emit a pulse of energy that deals 20813 to 24187 Nature damage to enemies within 20 yards. In 10-man, this does no damage to targets that are out of range.

Tempest Minions

Four are present at the beginning of the fight; when one is killed, a new one spawns to replace it. Each has ~141,000 health. Assuming all dps is attacking within three seconds of the first Overcharge application, each dps will need a minimum of 1.6k dps to down the minions in time.

Overcharged - Increases damage by 20%. Also increases size. Stacks up to 10 times. One stack is applied roughly every 2 seconds. The Tempest Minion will explode shortly after 10 stacks are reached, dealing ~30,000 nature damage to anyone inside the instance and likely wiping the raid. There will be a visible lightning-type animation and a large emote when Emalon empowers one of his minions with this effect. The first application of Overcharged fully heals the Tempest Minion.

Targeting Overcharged Tempest Minions

Quickly targeting Tempest Minions when Emalon overcharges them is critical to killing them quickly enough. Picking out the correct Minion out of the crowd of four used to be somewhat time-consuming. However, as of Patch 3.1.3, overcharged Tempest Minions immediately grow to twice the height of their brethren. They are now easy to select. Just click on the tall one.

Strategy Synopsis

Boss and Minion tanks 30yds apart for Lightning Nova.

Everyone max distance apart for Chain Lightning.

All DPS on Boss until Minion is Overcharged, then all switch.

Melee run from Emalon for Lightning Nova.

Strategy

Ten-man raids should use two tanks, two or three healers, and five or six damage-dealers, with ranged damage-dealers slightly preferred. Twenty-five-man raids should use two or three tanks, five to seven healers, and fifteen to eighteen damage-dealers.

On the pull, the tank (or tanks) for the Tempest Minions runs in first, closely followed by the tank for the boss. The boss tank taunts the boss immediately. Hunters and rogues can use Misdirection and Tricks of the Trade to help direct the targets to the correct tanks.

The boss tank and Minion tank separate to pre-agreed spots about 30 yards apart, so the Minion tank is not hit by Lightning Nova. Exact positioning is not important, so long as the separation is correct. Healers and ranged damage-dealers position themselves at least 30 yards from Emalon and in range of the Minions.

On 10-man, everyone must remain at least 10 yards away from everyone else, to keep Chain Lightning from jumping. On 25-man, it may be too crowded for this. Instead, stand exactly on top of one or two other characters, but at least 10 yards away from everyone else. This lets the Chain Lightning jump every time, but not far. Everyone must stay at least 10 yards away from the tanks.

The tanks' initial threat is low as they get their targets under control and positioned. This is because they are moving and they need to avoid grabbing each others' targets. Damage-dealers must wait until the tanks establish solid threat before they can attack. Once threat is established, they simply attack Emalon. There is no benefit to attacking the Minions until they are overcharged. They will constantly respawn

A straight melee hit from Emalon can cause 20,000 damage to the tank. Two hits in a row, without intervening heals, can kill many tanks. Having two healers on the Emalon tank makes sure that he gets healed often enough. The Minions do extra damage when they are overcharged, so the Minion tank may need extra healing at that time. The rest of the raid must be healed through Chain Lightning and (on 25-man) Lightning Nova.

All melee must run away from Emalon when he starts to cast Lightning Nova, then run back in to attack.

Emalon casts Overcharge on a strict 45-second timer. Use a timer mod (such as Deadly Boss Mods) to predict when he is about to cast it. All melee runs over to the Tempest Minions ahead of time. The overcharged Minion immediately grows to double height, and all damage-dealers attack it immediately, using whatever burst abilities they have. It must die in 20 seconds, or it wipes the raid.

Once the overcharged Minion dies, Emalon summons a new one near himself. The Minion tank must quickly pick it up. Having a third tank, while probably not necessary for survival purposes, makes picking up the new Minion more reliable.

The most common causes of wipes are exploding Minions, losses to Lightning Nova, losses to Chain Lightning, and losses to loose Minions.

To avoid wipes to exploding Minions, run a damage meter. Replace any damage dealers sustaining less than 2000 (10-man) or 2500 (25-man) DPS. If that is not reasonable, try positioning the Minions closer to the boss and rotating damage-dealing cooldowns (including Bloodlust/Heroism) on the overcharges.

To avoid losses to Chain Lightning, try separating and/or stacking as described above, or replace characters with low health. Having higher DPS also helps, as it allows the raid to win the fight before suffering too many deaths to the Chain Lightning.

Avoiding wipes to loose Minions is mainly a matter of tank skill. The boss tank can grab the Minion initially, until the Minion tank can pick it up. Using three tanks also helps (although this is not recommended unless your damage dealers have a very high DPS output).

In A Nutshell

Use nature resistance totem/aura

Ignore normal adds.

Once add gets Overcharged, concentrate all DPS on it.

Run when he stomps

Spread out

Loot

On Normal (10-man), he drops two items, which can be a hand, leg or chest Tier 8 (10) set piece for any class (the item itself, not the token) or back, feet, finger, hands, legs, neck, waist, wrist pieces from Deadly Gladiator's Season 5 assortments.

Related achievements

Patch changes

Videos

10-man encounter

25-man encounter

Patch changes

Hotfix (2009-04-28): "The Emalon encounter has received the following changes: The total health of the Tempest Minions has been reduced and Emalon's Chain Lightning spell will now have a limit on the number of targets it can hit.[1]"

Hotfix (2009-04-21): "Emalon should no longer use any of his special abilities for a short time after casting Overcharge.[1]"